Sick days
by Morte Mistrata
Summary: 10k is sick and the group tries to find medicine for him. During that time, 10k has nightmares, Doc fights a mysterious foe and everyone else goes on a mission in an abandoned elementary school to find the nurse's office. Nothing is as it seems.
1. Chapter 1

There was no where left to run. Both entrances of the alleyway were clogged with zombies. They got stuck between the walls as they tried to push past, and at times caused a rotting limb to snap off. 10K knew that their chances of escape were slim, but when weren't they? Today was a bad day to be running. As his feet met the concrete, his head pounded. The alley was swaying but he couldn't stop running. Not now.

Warren paused at a half lowered fire escape, cutting the head off of a zombie tangled in the bars.

"10k, you first." She said, nodded her head at it as she turned around to fend off the first few. He placed his hands on the lowest bar he could reach and jumped, using the boost to pull himself up. He climbed as fast as he could and then leaned over the edge of the building. Doc was halfway up the ladder, but Addy was barely on, leaving Vasquez and Warren stuck defending her from the approaching crowd of Z's.

Warren was good with her blade, but not good enough to fend off so many at once. And with no where to run, Vasquez wouldn't have enough time to switch from his emptied gun to a knife. 10k aimed his rifle and fired. The first one fell, knocking it's nieghbor to the ground. The two didn't get up and managed to stumble the next two Z's to make their way through the bottle-necked alley. Warren quickly dispated those two, creating a small barrier of bodies that gave enough space for Vasquez to boost Warren up. She climbed quickly, but blocked his view of Vasquez.

Vasquez blurred, his image not discernable from the walls or Z's. 10k held his rifle steady anyways and waited. When the image cleared, he was climbing the ladder, a hulking behemoth of a zombie grasping onto his pant leg. He kicked and 10k fired, the bullet lodging itself into the wall beside the zombie. He fired again, and the buller found it's mark. Finally free, Vasquez climbed up and as he pulled himself onto the roof, 10k leaned back.

His head swayed again and he lost balance. The distance between the ground and his face was increasing, and then a strong hand grasped onto the rifle strap. 10k fell back into a pair of strong hands. He steadied himself as Vasquez looked at him questioningly.

"You missed." He didn't get a chance to say anything else as Doc pushed him out of the way.

"You okay, kid?" Doc asked, handing him his bottle of water. "Drink somethin'. You might be dehydrated."

10k nodded and took a half-swig. "Thanks."

Warren exchanged a look with Vasquez, who nodded before she spoke. "All right. Just be careful. We're gonna travel by roof-top until we lose the papparazzi back there and then we'll find some more supplies. We can't leave until we've got more water at least."

"Cool with me." Addy replied, retying her boot lace before standing up. She twirled the Z-whacker in her hand absent mindedly.

10k ignored his headache and stood up. "Let's go."

OoOoO

Crossing roofs were harder than he had expected. A few were close enough to jump, or actually touched one another, but most had a span of ten or more feet. Their current plan was to either send somebody over by foot to attach a line, or to try to attach their homemade grappling hook to something on the other side. Since he was the lightest, 10k had the honor of going over first.

He watched as the hook caught on the base of a sattilite dish. Warren tugged the rope and then gestured to it. "Looks good. Go ahead."

10k nodded and pulled his gloves back on. Carefully, he grasped the rope with both hands and tugged downward. Pretty taut. He took a deep breath and slid off of the roof. There was the brief moment of freefall and then he was steady. He continued across without looking down. He could already hear the moans of the Z's below; he didn't need to see it too.

His head throbbed again painfully, as his hearing grew fuzzy. His grip slackened for a moment. He refocused and pulled himself the rest of the way across. His chest hurt and he couldn't breathe, but he sat up anyways and tied the rope in a sturdy knot before letting himself rest against the ledge of the building.

A Z stumbled out of the roof access, the door half off it's hinges. His hair was matted with blood, and the green pallor of his skin was strangely tinted by it. 10k reached for his gun and lifted it, only to find that the action required more strength than he had.

"He didn't shoot it. Hurry up!" Addy yelled from somewhere behind him. Her voice was the last thing he heard before he succumbed to the pain.

OoOoO

When 10k woke up, the first thing he noticed was that he wasn't wearing a shirt. And it was hot. Unbearably hot. He kicked off the blankets and tried to sit up. Doc pushed his back down.

"Stay down, kid." He pulled the blanket back over him. "You've probably got a fever. Not that I'll know until someone finds a first aid kit." He muttered.

10k's head felt like it was stuffed in cotton, but he tried to get the point across anyways. "I'm h-h-hot." He kicked at the covers again.

"Yeah, well that's what fever's will do to ya. Now keep it on and go back to sleep. We can't go anywhere until you get better."

OoOoO

Warren stood by the left of the door, back pressed to the wall. She held her blade with steady hands and nodded. Vasquez turned the knob and kicked the door. Three undead children, no older than eight charged at him. Warren shook her head as she sliced one of them in half, small torso sliding off of the knife like butter. The second child, a small girl in pigtails, tried to grab his leg and failed, falling to the ground.

"Hate seeing children like this." Vasquez muttered before piking it.

The third had turned to Addy, whose lip quivered at the sight of the boy. He looked almost alive in his rigor mortis. He might have been turned only a few days prior. Addy still hadn't moved to raise her Z-whacker as he approached.

Warren shook her head and stabbed him, blood spilling onto his ragged blue onesie. "If y'all two can't handle the kids, then you open the door and I'll mercy 'em. But whatever you do, you can't let 'em get to you. We've got 10k to worry about. Not dead kids."

Vasquez nodded. Addy frowned. "He just...looked like my brother. That's all."

Warren placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "It's fine. Now let's find the nurse's office."

The school was full of windows, but it didn't change that the interior hallways were dark and full of gaping open doors. Even though the school was located in the city, it wasn't looted which made finding medicine a possibility and not just a hope. Too bad it was full of dead elementary kids too.

Warren led them as they turned into another hallway, deeper into the school. The light from the windows didn't reach that deep, and it was as if day had switched to night. She frowned. They had long run out of batteries for flashlights, even though they were used sparingly. They had nothing.

"Guess we're going in blind." Addy said with a shrug. She tightened her grip on her Z-whacker. "After you."

Vasquez snorted and pulled his rifle from his waistband. Warren gave him the look. "Only if we really need it. Promise."

Warren sighed. "Fine." They walked on.

Drawings of happy families with smiling were still tacked to the walls, signed with names written in thick crayon. The ABC's hung crooked, X and Z fallen half to the ground, plastered to the wall by the dried blood that seemed to be splattered randomly around the hall. It was almost like a spiral, but with nothing on the ceiling. Addy slowed and pressed her hand to the wall. She shrieked as it came away wet.

Vasquez and Warren turned around, as something scurried behind them through the classrooms. They turned again.

"What was that?" Vasquez asked as Addy wiped her hand back on the wall.

"The same thing that covered the wall in blood. Let's hurry up before it shows up." Warren replied as they approached another doorway.

The door was knocked off of it's hinges, tilted at an angle that left it stuck in the doorway. Addy peered in.

"Hello?" Nothing moved inside. She shrugged. "All clear."

A cold, black hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back. She spread her legs and grabbed onto the doorframe. Warren and Vasquez grabbed her legs a second too late as she lost her grip and was pulled into the darkness, her screams lingering in the air.

"Damn it."

OoOoO


	2. Chapter 2

Tommy turned around, and his dad wasn't there. There were four Z's in his place. The four looked to be from the city, a good fifty miles from their cabin. The four of them must have wandered very far, or else Tommy and his Pa had walked too close. Either way, they were separated now.

The four were walking pretty slowly; Tommy could afford to slow down for a moment.

"Pa?" One of them stumbled forward, tripping over an exposed tree root. "Pa? Where are you?"

From the thick limbs of the trees, he saw him. His Pa's blue shirt was stained red on the shoulder but even so, he continued to run. His backpack was stuffed, a sharp contrast to Tommy's empty bag.

"Get movin' son!" He yelled, three more Z's running behind him.

Tommy ran back towards the cabin, his father trailing behind him. It wasn't until later, after deeming the cabin unsafe and settling down by a makeshift campfire , that his father said anything about being bitten, and the mercy that Tommy would have to gift him.

OoOoOoO

Doc paced the greenhouse anxiously, picking through the plants as he walked by. He'd found a few plants that he'd recognised, including mint, and a huge crop of potatoes. He'd already packed the potatoes away, but he had kept the mint, and was boiling it under a focused ray of sun and an aluminum foil cover. It was taking awhile to heat up, but hell, they had nowhere to be. And it gave him something to do while he waited for the worst of the illness to pass.

10k moaned again, and muttered, "Pa…" Doc tensed. He knew that the kid had some issues because of having to mervy him, but it really hadn't been brought up much since the nuclear plant. 10k turned over, and quieted down.

Doc sighed, and paused beside a miniature apple tree. Or at least, what was supposed to be one. It had grown a lot bigger than it was intended to during the apocalypse. The green apples were of varying shapes and sizes, but seemed edible enough. He doubted they would be anywhere as bad as the tree bark he had tried a while back. He picked as many as he could and brought them back to where 10k was sitting. The tea was still boiling. His potatoes were still in the bag. 10k was still sleeping restlessly. But the pair of shoes that Doc had wrestled off of him were gone from their spot beside the backpack.

Doc grabbed a garden rake from the wall and squatted beside the sleeping boy. He lifted the sheet and stared at his bare feet. He let the cover drop. Something moved behind him. He turned, rake extended. There was nothing that he could make out in the greenery. He shifted the rake anxiously, the heavy metal head a comforting weight. Behind him, something panted.

He turned again, and held his rake, ready to strike.

A german shepard sat beside 10k, a worn sneaker in it's mouth. Doc exhaled in relief and dropped the rake. At the sound of the dropped rake, the dog stood up. Dogs, he could handle; living ones at least. He had gone up against a zombie wolf before, and it was hard as hell to beat.

"Hey there bud." He said as he squatted down, hand extended. "Are you a good-"

Before he could finish, the dog growled and snapped at his hand. Doc pulled his hand back. "Well geez. Just tryin' to be nice." The dog growled at him a moment longer, then sat down beside 10k. He continued chewing the shoe.

10k whined in his sleep, shifting into the dog's side. Doc froze, unsure if the dog would be so aggressive towards the kid as he he had been towards him. The dog surprised him, and in a good way; normally his surprises were the bad kind, like an unexpected zombie or some crazy hybrid. The dog let 10k wrap his arm around him and licked him on the face instead.

Doc picked up one of the apples and wiped it on his sleeve; if the dog wasn't going to hurt 10k, he could deal with the uneasy truce. For now.

OoOoO

Warren watched the door warily. Whatever took Addy could easily come back. It wasn't human, but it couldn't be a Z either. At least, not a normal one. Addy wasn't dead yet, as she had yet to scream, but that didn't ease her anxiety much.

Vasquez returned, two emergency lights in his hands. He passed one to her, and she nodded her thanks before stepping over the broken door. The room it entered into appeared to be a stairwell. The black steps were coated in something slippery and wet, and although the stairs had safety grips on them, Warren still found herself clutching onto the railing, or when it broke away, Vasquez. Not that either of them really minded.

The door at the top of the stairwell was knocked down, flat against the floor. More of what she presumed to be blood coated the floor, almost as if someone had spilled paint on the ground. It thinned out as they continued down the hall, and Warren began to see footprints in the mess. They looked unnatural, some of them farther apart than any gait could be while the other was sometimes replaced with a streak of blood instead. She reckoned whoever made them was either a zombie or a human, dead by now.

Vasquez peered into the first room that they came upon. A mop leaned against the corner of the closet, it's wooden tip shoved into the head of a zombie. It's jaw clicked as it it spotted them. Vasquez sighed and closed the door. "People have nothing better to do these days." He muttered as he caught up with Warren.

Warren paused as the blood trail disappeared, leading to a broken wall, bricks surrounding it. Blood seemed to cover the entire hole, as if painted...or if a body had been slung around.

Vasquez unsheathed his dagger, and held his light underneath it. "Careful." He said as he stepped in front of her, and shined his light into the hole.

Warren could almost make out the outline of a body inside, crumpled on the floor. She swore as she saw red hair. "I'll go down first. Cover me."

Vasquez nodded, and held his light steady. Warren held her flashlight between her teeth and lowered herself through the floor. She landed on her feet, and immediately scanned the room. The room's walls were splattered with blood, but through that she could see posters with titles such as 'Eat healthy' and 'Six signs of an Asthma attack'. _The nurse's office._

She turned around and looked up at Vasquez. "We found it." She whispered.

He nodded as he dropped down. "You get the meds. I'll look for Addy."

As he turned his flashlight to the wall, she walked over to the medicine cabinet, where a first aid kit hung. She grabbed it and riled through the drawers. Asthma meds, diabetes meds, aspirin, and more than a few she couldn't name. She shoved them all into the bag, and then into her backpack. As she zipped it up, Vasquez hissed.

"Quiet."

Warren paused.

Something ran outside of the ruined door. It growled.

"Hurry up!" She hissed back, helping him to lift the girl onto his shoulders. A nasty lump was forming on her head, and she had no doubt that Addy would feel it in the morning. She pulled a rotting bench from the corner and stood on it. Her fingers barely grasped the ledge.

Vasquez laid Addy down gently and lifted her foot up. Her hands found purchase, and she pulled herself back onto the upper floor. Addy groggily blinked as she woke up, and looked up from the bench.

"I got it." She slurred, wobbling on Vasquez' hand as he boosted her up. She pulled herself up slightly, but before her strength gave out, Warren grabbed her wrist, and pulled her up. She pushed her away from the hole and passed her a gun.

"Watch my back." She ordered, as she turned back to the hole.

Vasquez reached up hand almost on the ledge, when the door splintered, and something knocked him to the side. She peered inside the hole, but her single light wasn't enough to do anything against the darkness. His own light had spun into a corner.

He yelled, and she heard the sound of a trigger click. There was a growl.

She slid off her backpack. "Hold on!" She yelled, scrambling to lower herself into the hole. Addy looked at her lethargically, and Warren realized that she still had her gun. "Addy! Bring the medicine back to 10k." The girl glanced back at her worriedly. "Go!" And then she disappeared.

She dropped onto the floor, and looked around. Vasquez had gone quiet, and there was only the sound of heavy breathing. She drew her blade. Her flashlight flickered.

Something cold and furry jumped at her, and it's jaw snapped dangerously close to her face. She stabbed through it's stomach and attempted to cut its neck, but it pulled away. The creature growled, then head butted her. Her light flickered out, and she passed out.


End file.
